January 9, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 19 other people, six of whom have already, tragically, died from their injuries, the national political establishment (media, pressure groups and elected officials) has turned its attention to the perils of extremist and vitriolic rhetoric. We are being asked to consider whether the use of metaphorical violence (putting Rep. Giffords in the crosshairs, which both Sarah Palin and her 2010 opponent did) leads to actual violence, and while direct responsibility is not being alleged, the ethical obligation to honor our democracy with civil discourse must be considered.
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December 27, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 8 Comments
Climate change means “global warming”, so how can severe winter storms and excessively cold breezes be evidence of a warming climate? The key is in the word “global”: the warming of the overall global average temperature need not manifest in all places at all times as warmer weather. Throughout the history of human civilization, the Earth’s climate has remained relatively stable, due to optimal global average temperatures; as global average temperatures slip outside that optimal range, the warmer air makes the interaction between climate systems more inconsistent and more severe.
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November 2, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States of America is the “wealthiest country in the history of the world”. We hear this repeated so often, it’s almost as if it has become the national slogan. Economists tend to agree that it’s the truth, but that wealth is relative: tens of millions of Americans live in abject poverty, unable to obtain basic sustenance, medical care, adequate education or even basic public safety. One in five children in the United States now live in poverty. Among African American and Hispanic children, the rate is 30 percent.
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October 2, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Will viewers more actively select for the content of their media environment, as hyper-convergence moves forward and the news of the world at large is enmeshed in a spreading web of personal information? Will impartial news programming or even generalized mainstream media content disappear from the viewer’s localized media environment?
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September 29, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The European Commission is considering new rules that would give it far more control over the domestic fiscal policy of member states, including the possibility of fines to countries in distress that do not adopt austerity measures to reduce spending. Today, across Europe, there are protests organized by labor unions and citizens groups who allege austerity is just a veiled way of making the majority of working people, innocent of the financial system’s collapse, pay for the abuse or misjudgment of top executives and reckless investors.
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September 26, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Whenever legislation to price carbon starts to gain traction, the fossil fuel industry trots out this talking point: “It will kill jobs and ruin the economy.” In this paper, however, HotSpring Network founder and Citizens Climate Lobby volunteer Joseph Robertson ties together numerous reports and case studies to present a different picture, one in which the transition to clean energy will produce new jobs and provide a stimulus to the economy.
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July 17, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Buckminster Fuller was one of the 20th century’s most visionary architects, whose philosophy of socially responsible planning and design has influenced cutting-edge technology research and public policy the world over, through the UN’s development programs and pioneering entrepreneurship aimed at lifting billions out of poverty. His vision was, in his own words, “To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”
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July 12, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Scientists in Mississippi say they have discovered microscopic globules of hydrocarbons, i.e. petroleum, inside the outer shells of blue crab living along the Gulf coast. This discovery appears to show that oil has now entered the food chain. This process cannot be reversed, though measures may be taken to limit the spread of the oil deeper into the local and regional ecosystem.
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June 16, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is nothing ideological about the issue of renewable energy resources. Proponents tend to care about the health of the natural environment, which motivates their wish to see renewables replace high-polluting resources like oil and coal, but the technologies, the fact of their economic viability and their usefulness for society at large, are not in any way a matter of ideology.
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June 16, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is mounting concern the ongoing flow of oil from the damaged BP Deepwater Horizon well in the Macondo field may be the result of one or more serious structural breaches in the cement well casing below the sea bed. Statements made on 7 June by Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, suggest the well casing has ruptured, there are multiple points of seepage across the surrounding sea bed, and the well can likely only be closed from below, if or when the two relief wells connect with the damaged well.
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June 16, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama addressed the nation last night from the Oval Office, on the tragedy unfolding across the Gulf of Mexico, and issued an impassioned call for the entire nation to rally to the cause of breaking its “addiction to fossil fuels”. The president’s vision goes beyond the question of “energy independence”, which tends to favor expanded offshore drilling, to a push for a comprehensive transition to clean, renewable sources of energy and the phasing out of carbon-based fuels.
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June 10, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The blow-out (explosion and collapse) of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the well 5,000 feet below has brought into high contrast a serious problem inherent in the way we produce energy: we have long refused to calculate the real costs of extracting fossil fuels. Ecological economics is founded on this point: we should calculate the value of the natural ecosystem services disrupted by the after-effects of carbon emissions.
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June 9, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Gulf of Mexico coastline of the southeastern United States has been hard hit by the ongoing BP oil disaster, with catastrophic environmental damage, the collapse of the local fishing and shrimping industry, and tourism bottoming out in some places near zero, just as summer gets going. There is a moratorium on deepwater exploration and drilling, which is putting a strain on the job market across several states. A serious investment in renewable energy resources would build a more vibrant, more reliable jobs market into the regional economy and help prevent the environmental fallout of offshore drilling.
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June 4, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
It’s not just the intense vibration, noise pollution and toxic contaminants associated with trucking that we need to address, but the broader environmental fallout from depending so heavily on a petroleum-based combustion-centric mode of transport. Heavy overland transport vehicles demand a massive amount of power to move them from place to place; advanced battery technologies may soon allow us to power them using electricity, but we need to build the infrastructure to produce, store and transport all that green energy.
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June 4, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Malaria Kills Millions Every Year in Africa. It is responsible for anywhere from 1 to 3 million deaths per year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to eradicate the disease are mounting: in the year 2000, just 3% of children under 5, in sub-Saharan Africa, slept with mosquito nets; by 2008, that figure had risen to 56%. Aid groups now project that aggressive preventive measures can protect 100% of the population by the end of 2010 and reduce the number of deaths to near zero by 2015.
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June 4, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The Guardian reports that a proposed piece of legislation up for debate in the Italian senate would mean: “No more reporting of criminal investigations before they come to trial (even if that takes years). No more recording or photographing of anyone, even a Mafia boss, unless that person approves. Only members of the state-approved “National Order of Journalists” allowed to film or record. Fines approaching half-a-million euros for publishers who transgress, with €20,000 per reporter also on the table.”
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June 1, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The European Union is dealing harshly with nations that are suffering the converging crises of economic downturn, joblessness and swelling budget deficits. Spain is taking aggressive action to reduce public spending, but such “austerity measures” may be deepening, instead of resolving, the economic crisis.
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June 1, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Geneticist and biotech pioneer Craig Venter unveils the process of experimentation and research that allowed his team to create the “first synthetic cell”. The video includes not only information about how the genetic code was created first on a computer and includes “watermarks” such as the name of the new species’ official website, but also about how the team studied ethical issues relating to the project of creating synthetic life. The project took 15 years and was aimed at creating “error-free genetic code”.
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May 31, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The spreading environmental fallout from the gushing Deepwater Horizon BP oil well is likely to continue throughout the summer, barring the discovery of a bold new idea for how to cap a runaway oil well. It appears that BP lied when it allegedly told regulators over a year ago that it had the technology to deal with a rupture resulting in a leak of 300,000 gallons per day. Clearly, none of BP’s standard responses are working.
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May 28, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In Florida and elsewhere, migrant workers who do not enjoy the legal protections that come with legal paperwork are easily subjected to abuses, near zero pay and even violence. Conditions on some farms amount to slavery, and the US Justice Department has prosecuted at least 7 such farms in the last decade.
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May 17, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The idea of a “renaissance man” suggests individuals like Leonardo Da Vinci, who not only dabbled in but was himself the pinnacle of the art in painting, physics, engineering and other fields. His depth and breadth of knowledge allowed him to achieve meaningful breakthroughs that might not have been apparent to anyone functioning in any other way. The 21st century demands we reach these kind of insights with unprecedented efficacy, so we find ourselves with the question: how does one train for this way of life?
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May 8, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now looking at ways to use legislation that grants the power to regulate traditional phone networks in order to establish a regulatory paradigm of ‘net neutrality’, meaning internet service providers (ISP) who provide connectivity cannot block or slow traffic to some sites while privileging traffic to others. Bandwidth itself is an important limiting factor in the physical environment, and so efforts to expand bandwidth may be crucial to making real net neutrality work.
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April 18, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Share the best practices and legal remedies for preventing identity theft, whether by digital means or wireless harvesting, or in the physical realm of paper, plastic and voice. What laws give consumers leverage in reversing fraudulent charges? What pending legislation will do the most to help protect the sanctity of individual identity? How can we leverage consumer technologies to protect against the most aggressive, innovative attackers? What can the credit scoring universe do to assist and protect consumers?
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April 17, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
How can the Obama administration’s proposed financial regulatory reforms do the best work of preventing the fictionalization of wealth through abstract, unregulated derivatives trading, while allowing the freedom for the private sector to innovate, negotiate and invest boldly and responsibly?
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April 10, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Swiss-based Solar Impulse has achieved the maiden voyage of its solar-powered aircraft. From here on, the question will no longer be whether solar-powered air travel is possible, but how efficient are the technologies allowing it to compete with combustion-powered air travel.
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March 30, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A central truth in the arduous national debate over health insurance reform legislation, throughout 2009 and up to passage in March 2010, has been the fact that major insurers are unable to provide coverage for the treatment needed by their patients. Either their business model is fundamentally flawed or there is a severe deficit of imagination as to how to implement the business model in a way that benefits all stakeholders.
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March 18, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Great Recession has begun to push through to basic public services that affect us all. Education funding has dried up and across the country, cities facing major budget shortfalls are taking the radical step of shutting down schools in order to address the budget crisis.
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March 2, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
“From Social Media to Social Action” was the subject of one of the morning sessions on Day 1 of the 12-day 54th annual Commission on the Status of Women, at the UN headquarters in New York. A panel of pioneering and accomplished women, from diverse fields of research, activism, and enterprise, offered a far-reaching exploration of the ways in which new media can help to effect change and improve the situation of women, around the world. Outreach, social networking, and informational access, were integral to the morning session’s discussion.
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March 1, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The International Museum of Women, an online art gallery, which aims to foster dialogue and promote new educational directions for women and in relation to issues of women’s rights and opportunity, is hosting an exhibit called ‘Ecomomica’, which explores the role women play in the evolving global economy.
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February 27, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
‘Psychic numbing’ is a relatively new term, assigned to the phenomenon which shows people tend to feel less urgent compassion, and tend to give less, when the suffering in question is shown to be more systemic and more pervasive, or affecting larger numbers of people. Some psychologists believe it is linked to our intuitive sense that if one suffers alone, the suffering is worse, but if one is accompanied, there might be some security in numbers, not just emotionally, but practically.
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February 15, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 6.9 million people in 12 years. No war has cost more innocent lives since World War II, and the level of extreme violence, brutality against women, and even the enslavement of families and villages, appears to be escalating. The world’s attention has yet to fully focus on the plight of the Congolese civilians living in a state of perpetual extreme crisis day after day.
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January 27, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Apple’s new tablet computer has finally been unveiled, after years of speculation. The iPad will function as a genuine cross-over between the realm of the iPhone and the laptop computer, in a format smaller than a laptop screen, similar to a netbook, and designed to optimize the experience of reading online or working with files and e-publications. It will be able to run over 140,000 of the apps already made for iPhone and iPod Touch, with a whole new class of iPad-optimized apps to come. Perhaps most important of all, it will retail for a starting price of only $499.
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January 26, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Apple tablet should be an intensely user-friendly device that achieves a paradigm shift in the way we deal with information. That sounds big, but Apple is well-equipped to do this, even by just making a few key upgrades to what it has already made possible with its laptops and touch-sensitive handhelds.
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January 14, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti two days ago has left an unknown number of thousands of people dead or missing, destroyed the service infrastructure in the capital and left a precarious situation for millions of survivors. The disaster response effort has been swift and international, with rescue and relief teams scrambling from across the world to get to Haiti.
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January 8, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After decades of environmental scientists seeking to raise awareness about the detrimental impacts of burning ever more carbon-based fuels, the Copenhagen Accord shows a global willingness to recognize the gravity of the issue and to take concrete —if as yet unnamed— policy actions to address the challenges of coming decades.
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January 4, 2010 :: Carmen Visna :: Comments Off
La luna se aleja, no veo el camino; estoy lista, medito, pero el futuro no me pertenece. Por lo tanto, no duermo. Busco en las tinieblas, hacia las cuatro, mi nombre; ya no existe. Esta experiencia desconcertante me gusta, porque ayuda a definir los límites; sé hasta dónde tengo que limitarme en sociedad. Imagino que el yo, en general, es un fenómeno menos comprobado que lo que pensamos.
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December 31, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
That too many people, including policy-makers and media figures “are out of their intellectual depth and easily manipulated” by the bewildering complexity of the financial-political feedback-loop is almost irrefutable, and I agree with comments in this debate it’s “a symptom of the limitations of our neural architecture”. But I don’t know if we should take the question of neural architecture in the biological sense. There’s a cultural and practical response that needs to be considered at least as strongly.
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December 28, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Sandia National Laboratories have achieved a landmark breakthrough in solar-voltaic power-generation technology. The snowflake-like “solar glitter” uses 100 times less material to produce the same amount of electricity as today’s standard 6-inch square solar cells. This achievement of ultra-miniaturization now has the potential to move solar-voltaic power generation to the forefront of the clean energy revolution, and help speed the transition away from carbon-based combustible fuels.
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December 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Gordon Brown plans “plan b” 2nd round of talks if Copenhagen conference fails to achieve global pact. The plan would call for a smaller number of nations to meet to agree to concrete steps to curb emissions and move their contribution to the world economy toward a green energy future.
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December 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
With the US promising to commit $100 billion over ten years to help fund mitigation efforts against the impacts of climate destabilization and China all but refusing outright to agree to any pact that requires international verification of emissions reductions and/or how international funds are spent, the technological solution remains a key priority.
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December 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Intellectual property laws designed to help protect the ability of researchers to retain compensation for major innovations have led to a uniquely problematic “innovation” in the laws themselves, where specific genes, or the informational access to them, are patented, barring individuals or their physicians from dealing directly with those genes except through the for-profit patent-holders.
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December 10, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The deepest image ever taken of the universe, using the ultra-powerful Hubble Space Telescope, known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, shows there to be 100 billion galaxies in the universe, some projecting light from a distance of 47 billion light years. A study of the Doppler redshift of galaxies speeding away from the Hubble’s vantage point has allowed astronomers to create a 3-dimensional projection of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, the deepest photograph ever taken of the observable universe.
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December 5, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Bottled water is a high environmental-impact product, which is not regulated like municipal water reserves that feed tap water, and can cost as much as 10,000 times per volume as much as tap water. Nevertheless, aggressive and often misleading marketing campaigns have made bottled water one of the most significant rising trends in American and European consumer sales.
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November 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States is trudging through the tailing winds of an economic storm that saw trillions of dollars in wealth wiped away, major financial institutions demolished, and an investment-based nationalization of the nation’s largest banks, and the mystery, according to most observers, is: where are the jobs? One after another source will say job recovery trails recovery in national economic growth by six to eighteen months.
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November 28, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Scientists have discovered evidence that human hearing is in part dependent on tactile cues that come not from audible sounds, but from pressure fluctuations and air-particle displacement against skin around the ear.
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November 28, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Dubai is the jewel of the Arabian peninsula, the region’s financial capital and a city of global importance. Exorbitant wealth has become something like a national sport there, and major institutions there took the position that they could outlast the global financial panic without substantial government intervention.
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November 21, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Can we expect China’s cooperation on emissions reduction? It’s clear that China has shifted its energy policy somewhat, to take account for the potential long-term strategic economic benefit of being a major source for green energy technology, know-how and to use green energy to fill out the nation’s energy supply and possibly permit exportation of energy or fuels.
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November 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
If we’re looking at a rise in overall global energy consumption as an “opportunity”, we should class all particulars of the debate in terms of the long-term viability of the energy resource to be exploited. While carbon-based commodities may see steep returns in the short term, heavy front-end investment in carbon-based fuels will reduce the long-term viability of those commodities as business models, thus curving down the benefit over time.
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October 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Amazon Kindle 2 is ideally sized for one-handed reading. In this category, it beats the traditional book, because it’s single pane is more ergonomic for the purpose of reading with one hand and seeing the text clearly at a consistent angle, than struggling to balance a side-bound traditional book.
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October 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Google Voice, an ingenious use of web-based voice communications service, allows users to combine a range of phone numbers under one standard, permanent Google phone number. Any linked phone number can be removed or replaced, and the service is free. All domestic calls inside the US are free, and sms is free. The service even converts voicemail to readable transcripts in an online inbox.
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